2006 Ignobel Prize in Physics (why spaghetti does not break in half)

[Martin]

http://www.ignobel.com/ig/ig-pastwinners.html#ig2006

http://dorigo.wordpress.com/2006/10/16/the-new-ignobel-prize-in-physics/

 

this year the prize was awarded to

Basile Audoly and Sebastien Neukirch,

 

for their work on fractures explaining why spaghetti does not break in half:

 

“Fragmentation of Rods by Cascading Cracks: Why Spaghetti Does Not Break in Half”, Physical Review Letters 95, 9 (2005) 95505

http://www.lmm.jussieu.fr/spaghetti/index.html

 

 

you can read more about this year's prizes at the ignobel site.

 

the chemistry prize had to do with ultrasonic velocity in cheddar cheese.

 

the prize for medicine was for inventing an unmentionable way to cure hiccups.

[Martin]

http://heelspurs.com/feynman.html

 

at the Spaghetti website I found these Feynman video snippets about various things----bits of interviews etc.

 

=========================

 

also there are these movies of spaghetti breaking

intended to show why it doesn't just snap into two pieces

which you'd think would resolve its stress problems

http://www.lmm.jussieu.fr/spaghetti/movies-1-pb.html

http://www.lmm.jussieu.fr/spaghetti/movies-6-more.html

 

 

Feynman was interested in spaghetti, so the investigation of this problem goes back a ways----spaghetti breakage has a history of interesting people

[J.C.MacSwell]

Maybe Spaghetti Theory will take over String Theory (Macaroni metrics, Lasagna branes etc. etc.)

[ecoli]

Maybe Spaghetti Theory will take over String Theory (Macaroni metrics, Lasagna branes etc. etc.)

It's happening in religion, why not science?

[Sisyphus]

Perhaps Spaghetti Theory is just an atheist conspiracy to undermine our children's faith in the FSM.

[swansont]

the prize for medicine was for inventing an unmentionable way to cure hiccups.

 

I would venture to guess that alien abductees do not tend to suffer from hiccups...

[gcol]

The spaghetti breaking illustrated shows only single sticks. When breaking a handful of long spag in half to fit my economy saucepan, 95% break into 2 pieces. By the laws of chance, one must, after many such operations, break as nearly exactly in half as makes no difference.

 

The moisture content also affects snapping behaviour, as does speed.

 

I therefore cry flawed and incomplete experiment, and skewed results.

 

Did the research budget run out, or was there something interesting to watch on the telly instead?

 

I shall, as with my spag, use a generous sprinkle of salt when considering his other work.